Welcome to the Steader Heap — Just like compost, you throw everything in, mix it around, and your mind grows.
Taking-walks tribalism.
Take walks. Dog ownership optional.
Taking walks is a low key but highly productive source of family identity. Or even corporate identity. We know a boss who takes long walks every day after he got diabetes. He often asks one of his employees to come with him and they just chat. No particular agenda. His office now has surprisingly high levels of group spirit and solidarity.
The rhythmic motion and continual but non-exhausting bodily motion does great things for the mind and the heart. Walking is about as good for those unplanned, relaxed conversations of life long importance as family meals and sitting around the fire.
The Steader insight is that identity formation happens when you do something distinctive that has felt reward and outside cultural reinforcement. Walking has it.
Not everybody does it. America has miles of empty sidewalks. So its distinctive. It has cultural weight both now and historically. Now its exercise and fresh air. In old books and other sources with heft, the same thing. Think of your child reading about the Inklings and discovering that walking and talking was one of their favorite things to do.
It’s bodily rewarding especially in an age of screens and gives the walker a sense of place. Walking in parks and beautiful venues is good. There is no reason not to embrace the entire walk-hike spectrum. Yet neighborhood walks are ideal both for getting a sense of place and getting to know your neighbors.
Book Update
A reader let me know recently that his kids are getting a kick out Yes, Our Family is the Best. He says they’ve been cutting out pictures of their faces and pasting them on kids in the book. That is exactly what the book was meant for. As the first natalist kids’ book, its meant to have custom touches to promote your own family identity.
He asked if he could a bulk order for a kids’ camp. The answer was yes, and at a big discount.
Spring
A time for high spirits
A time for enjoying beauty
A time for working for future beauty
(An indoor stand for getting a headstart on ripe, juicy june tomatoes)
And sometimes both
Excavating an old compost heap for your fruit trees doesn’t look like much, but we all commented that the smell was heavenly.